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A divided U.S. Supreme Court handed down a victory Wednesday for black legislative leaders in Alabama, and the decision may signal a coming win for Virginia Democrats fighting Republican-drawn election maps here. The court's 5-4 decision sends Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama back to the federal district court there with an admonition that the case be re-argued. Plaintiffs there argued that Alabama legislators unfairly packed minority voters into districts to dilute black voting strength elsewhere. A federal judicial panel in the state disagreed, but the U.S. Supreme Court vacated that decision Wednesday. A three-judge panel in Virginia decided just the opposite in a...

Del. Joe Morrissey says his move into the city of Richmond, back into the Democratic party and into a primary contest for in state Senate that sprawls from Richmond south to Hopewell and Petersburg and beyond is coming because he thinks he can get more...

Military leaders over the past week have sharpened warnings that force readiness is unraveling and it could plummet if Congress allows the next round of defense cuts mandated by the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA), with its sequestration tool, to take...

Drawing representative district lines to favor the political party in power is nearly as old as the republic itself. It's a strategy both Democrats and Republicans use to protect majorities and which allows prominent incumbents to all but ensure...

Virginia state Del. Joseph Morrissey, D-Henrico, will resign his seat in the General Assembly in the wake of his conviction on a misdemeanor charge involving his relations with a 17-year-old girl. But he plans to run in a special election for his own...

In a way, the incumbent and challenger in one of Virginia's most closely divided congressional districts, the 2nd, agree on the big point: Washington is broken.But Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Virginia Beach, and Democratic challenger Suzanne Patrick disagree...

RICHMOND — Virginia seems headed for a ho-hum election Tuesday, with little on the ballot to inspire passion, or turnout.
Most people will see three things: The U.S. Senate race between incumbent Democrat Mark Warner and Republican Ed Gillespie, an...

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe had run out of options to pull off his marquee campaign promise to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Even a risky plan to circumvent the legislature had fallen apart.
That's when the governor,...

Republican Ed Gillespie attacked U.S. Sen. Mark Warner for discussing the possibility of a federal judgeship for the daughter of a Democrat who was on the verge of quitting the evenly split Virginia state Senate and throwing control to the GOP.
In the...

RICHMOND — The son of a former state senator has told federal investigators that U.S. Sen. Mark Warner discussed the possibility of several jobs, including a federal judgeship, for the senator's daughter in an effort to dissuade him from quitting the...

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe's chief of staff left a voice-mail message for a Democrat who was on the verge of quitting the General Assembly in June, saying that the state senator's daughter might get a top state job if he stayed to...

The race for the Senate pits a governor-turned-senator who prides himself on his willingness to work across party lines against a former head of the Republican National Committee who says it's time to break Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's grip.Sen....

The Republican caucus has taken firm control of the state Senate’s committees, in the wake of Phil Puckett’s resignation, which threw control of the body to the GOP.
The changes came on a voice voice last week -- and since committees have the power to...

Norfolk Democrats have their candidate to replace Algie Howell in the 90th House of Delegates district: Local attorney Joe Lindsey.
Lindsey bested two other candidates over the weekend. No word yet on a Republican / Libertarian / Independent candidate in...

Senate Democratic Leader Richard Saslaw has signaled repeatedly - and sometimes just outright said - that he doesn't see any movement coming on the state's budget impasse until after the new fiscal year starts July 1.
And with the news this morning...

Republican politicos are a bit reluctant to say it out loud, but many are furious over what they see as a politically motived prosecution of one of their stars, former Gov. Bob McDonnell.
The trial — and now the conviction — added fuel to a fire...

At the center of the fall campaigns, from the presidential race on down, is whether to extend all or some of President George W. Bush's temporary tax cuts which are set to expire at the end of the year.President Barack Obama wants the Bush-tax cuts to...

Were you paying attention to the pop culture in 2011? It was certainly an eventful year, with pop stars and talk show hosts grabbing headlines and a colorful cast of Republican presidential hopefuls jockeying for position. Here's a little test to make...

UPDATE: Gov. Bob McDonnell late Thursday said he would sign the redistricting legislation passed by the General Assembly "as soon as it reaches my desk." In a statement, the governor said the legislation approved by state lawmakers earlier in...